Friday, 12 October 2012

Last Saturday Jo & I went to The Culvert in Jesmond Vale for an explore! We went with a couple of friends who had been to this place before & knew their way around, for which I was grateful, as although it would be difficult to get lost as such (it's a straight line!) it had the potential to be dangerous, and having people around who knew what they were doing was definitely a good idea!

We started at the south end of the Ouseburn, not far from the Farm, and scrambled down the embankment. I had hopes of keeping my feet dry for as long as possible, but that was not to be, as I slipped slightly on one of the rocks and *sploosh* went my foot into 6" of water! (I've since then bought myself some better boots and some waterproof trousies, for next time!)

We clambered up into the top half of the culvert, above the river itself. This part is girdered with iron which gives it a wonderfully post-apocalyptic sci-fi feel!

Someone had a party!

Further along, the character of the tunnel changed to a concrete lined, high ceilinged passageway. This would have been the area used as a bomb shelter in WWII, as evidenced by the blast baffles at intervals along the tunnel, and the pots in the floor in some parts! These are towards the edges of the tunnel, over the sewers which run either side of the Ouseburn.

Blast baffle (used with permission from Jo)

Some of the holes in the floor are less deliberate and more dilapidate:

We had to tread carefully to avoid these gaps in the floor. A sprained ankle here would not have been pleasant.

We found a variety of objects along the way; a burned mattress, a toaster, also charred, and a caster; possibly from the same bed that the mattress came from:

Toasted

Cast off

Further along was some interesting graffiti!

Right over the sewer!

Gut party, ja!

The tunnel ends in a 'room' with a shaft up to the surface, but we did not investigate this, as the rungs in the walls looked somewhat rickety, and the manhole cover at the top is usually locked.

So we retraced our steps to a section where we could gain access to the river itself:

MIND YOUR STEP

The edge of the tunnel we were now in was fairly dry, but sloped, and after the first time I slipped and nearly fell in to the water, I decided that my feet couldn't get any wetter, so I'd wade. The footing was easier, as the floor was flat in the middle, which made the going much better.

The water was knee deep! (Used with permission from Jo)

An artistic shot (used with permission from Jo)

A storm drain (used with permission from Jo)

When we reached the end of the Culvert, the tunnel opened up into a broader passage for a few yards, and beyond that was a waterfall. To one side were more of the rungs, set into the side of the tunnel and leading up to a fence. I looked up with some trepidation. No one had told me about this bit, and as you'll remember from my experience at the climbing wall, I'm not very good at this sort of thing. However, I shimmied up the rungs with no trouble, and, trying to keep out of mind the thought of falling into the river from a great height, I made my way along the narrow ledge, clinging to the fence like grim death!

Clambering out! (used with permission from Jo)

The final obstacle was a curved spikey bit of fence, designed to stop people from doing exactly what we were doing. To make matters more complicated, the ledge dipped inwards at this point. I was told that it would bear my weight and to just swing around it. I swallowed, took my courage and the fence in both hands, and went for it. It was a huge relief to get back onto terra firma but I felt so elated that I had managed it, and I had a grin on my face for several hours afterwards!

Tuesday, 9 October 2012

Well, as I said in my previous post, I enjoyed my Challenge so much that I don't want to stop! Therefore, I'll be trying to do at least 20 new things in my 40th year :D As before, I have a list of possible things, although it has already got a couple of things on it which weren't there to start with, so nothing much is different in this respect either!

So; here's my starter for 20! Some of them are the same as before, things I couldn't do, but still want to...

Tuesday, 25 September 2012

This is an overview of what I've done, what I have not done, what worked well, what did not, and all that kind of thing.

I am very pleased with myself for having finished my Challenge, despite some things not going to plan, and others having to be substituted at the last minute!

Things that worked well seemed to be 'trying things out' - making the corset, trying tablet weaving, bookbinding and so on.

What didn't seem to work so well was anything which required a major investment of time (and willpower!) longer term... the money diet didn't really happen, neither did the actual diet. Surprisingly, neither did watching 5 must-see movies; we're apparently useless at sitting down to watch a film!

One thing I have learned about myself from doing this Challenge is that I love trying things out, even if I then don't feel inclined to pursue them any further. For instance, rock-climbing and tablet weaving are things I'm glad I've tried, but won't continue. Corset making however, I will do again, and I'll probably try spinning again at some point. I'll definitely go on another tour of the Victoria Tunnel, and I might even become a tour guide for it!

I have thoroughly enjoyed my Challenge, and in particular, I have enjoyed the variety that the 'scatter-gun' approach has given to it. Therefore, I will be doing a new Challenge, starting after my birthday. Since 40 things was rather a lot, I intend to try 20 new things in my 40th year, so the new Challenge is going to be called 20in40!

This means that I will continue to try new crafts like woodworking, blacksmithing and stained-glass making, as well as hopefully doing some of the things which I could not manage this year (horseriding on the beach, side-saddle riding, and so on).

My 40th Birthday was somewhat like my 39th, in that it didn't all go quite to plan. However, it was a lovely day & the bits that did work were lovely!

I had a lovely birthday breakfast of thick pancakes with a variety of things sprinkled on them, then went into Town.

We didn't make it to the Jekyll & Hyde pub, thanks to the sat-nav on my phone being unreliable :(
Instead, we went straight to the Mary King's Close tour. This was a fascinating 'living history' tour of the underground streets beneath the Royal Mile. Our tour guide was really enthusiastic, and really made the streets come to life. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take any photos while we were down there and the infra-red photo that we had taken really didn't come out well enough to spend money on.

Then on to the Library suite at the Witchery; the final item on my list, and a real treat. The bathroom was amazing, underfloor heating and a huge bath! We had a picnic supper & watched a movie before snuggling up in the lovely cosy bed :D

Luckily, I'd kept a couple of 'new things' in reserve until the end in case I needed them. This was a good move, as I'd planned to do the Box Brownie photos last Thursday, but I found myself really flustered with getting ready to go to Edinburgh, so I postponed that until another time... more news about that in another post!

So, for your delectation; drop casting of silver!

I'd previously drop-cast pewter, which was fun, but I knew that silver takes a bit more effort, as it has to be heated to a much higher temperature than pewter. Also the dropping of the hot metal into cold water has to be done into a bucket or other deep container, unlike pewter, where I used a tall glass.

A 'cup' with a drop of silver nestled in it

I love the patterns on this one

A couple of weird mushroom shapes

I've had my makeup done many times, but I have never had my face painted before. So when my dear friend Gill asked if she could paint me, I said 'yes!' and this is the result. I can't believe she's only been doing face-painting for a bit over two WEEKS! She's brilliant, and will only get even better with practice ;)

Thursday, 13 September 2012

I have been doing a lot of reading and sorting things out on my computer over the last couple of days. This is due to me finally leaving Firefox for Chrome as my browser of choice; so I've been sorting out my bookmarks, pruning dead links, and reading some of the articles I've had bookmarked for a long time.

I have lists. Lots of lists. And some things on those lists don't belong where they are. I've been mistaking a lot of my Projects for Items-to-do, and that has overwhelmed me. Just now, when I was sorting out some lists and re-assessing some things, I put some Projects on a To Do list & felt wretched. When I realised that I needed to make a separate Projects list for them, and only put the next step on the To-Do list I felt so much lighter. I think this might work better for me from now on!

The epiphany was that at some point, I have to stop organising (be that reading, sorting files & lists on my computer, or physically organising things like my jewellery findings) and start doing something with that knowledge (or list, or organised things).

So my new mantra is going to be "Less organising, more doing!"

We'll see if it works ;)

Having said that, though, I do know that I have to work with whatever my mood dictates; today is a doing things with the computer day, rather than a making things day, so I'll do some more blog related work, and so on. Maybe tomorrow one of the more physical projects will get a look in, like making some jewellery for the upcoming Newcastle Alternative Expo. If you're around, please pop in, it looks like it will be lots of fun!

Tuesday, 11 September 2012

Many thanks to K for showing me how to make a book! I am very pleased how it turned out, although in hindsight I would have used the flour paste glue for the cover instead of the fabric glue as I think it would have stuck better! However, several days under a heavy weight seems to have sorted out the last few blisters which hadn't stuck down quite right!

My first codex

All four codices

Sewing the codex

The finished binding

The finished article!

The endpaper

On display

Thanks also to Jo for showing me tablet weaving & mask making... all problems with these parts of the challenge are entirely down to pilot error!

The mask was going fine until I cut the eye holes... too big :( I am going to try to remedy it with judicious use of decoration, but we'll have to see how that goes. Here's a few pictures from the process, before it went wrong!

The base mask.

Shaping the decorative cogs

Cogs fixed to the mask, all painted & pretty!

As for Tablet weaving - I think that's one for you Jo! I tried, and the first little piece I made was OK...

Once I got going, all was well!

Then I tried something a little more complex, with a border either side. I had a lot of trouble with the S & Z threaded cards next to each other getting caught up together, and forgetting which way I was turning the cards to make the pattern!

Not so good....

I tried another variant, tubular weaving, which worked OK, but still not spectacularly well.

Tubular!

Remembering what Jo had said about tablet weaving needing more cords to make it worthwhile, otherwise I might as well be doing finger-braiding, I figured I would look up finger-braiding too... and I tried that as well. Once I realised how it was supposed to be done, it was fine, but I don't think I'll make a habit of it!

A simple finger braid

Finally, I decided to try out normal weaving, since Jo had loaned me a loom to do the tablet weaving on... the sides kept pulling in and I just don't think I have the patience for this kind of thing!

My list is rapidly filling up, which is good, as the time is rapidly dwindling. I do get a certain nice buzz when I tell people about my Challenge & they say "Oh you must have a couple of years for that!" and are then surprised when I say I have a month left for it!!

Two things off the list are the 4-handed massage at the Hana Beauty Clinic in Whitley Bay, and visiting the Victoria Tunnel underneath Newcastle.

I enjoyed the massage; the sheer luxury of having two pairs of hands massaging me in synchronisation was fantastic. Unfortunately, having slept badly the night before, my restless leg syndrome got the better of me, and I spent half the time trying to get comfortable, which rather spoiled the relaxation aspect of it... :(

The tour of the Victoria Tunnel was fantastic, and I intend to book another tour again as soon as I can arrange it. Dave, one of the tour guides, was brilliant (the other David was good too, but Dave was fabulous!)

We had a tour of part of the Ouseburn Valley first - this is a boat outside the Seven Stories Children's Workshop

The history of the tunnel is fascinating: there is a good history of it here. It was originally built in the Victorian era (c.1840) and was in use as a coal-waggonway for some time. It was closed after about 18 years, and re-opened in WWII as an air-raid-shelter. In the mean-time, it was briefly used in the 1920's as a mushroom farm. Now it is open for the tours, run by the Ouseburn Trust.

A handprint left from the manufacture of the bricks!

My phone can't cope with low light levels... this is the best I could manage of the tunnel itself!

I am very taken with the Tunnel, and I'm thinking of becoming a volunteer guide, if time allows once I start my Counselling course later this month!

The accidental one is a bit of a cheat really, but I'm going to count it anyway! The front garden is colourful! I had removed this when I realised that it was not really something I wanted to do for myself, but rather it was something which somebody else thought I should do ;) However, having planted some wildflower seeds and a couple of plants a few years ago, suddenly this year, I have colour!

Evening Primrose

Montbretia

Now for the random ones! I hadn't realised I could count this one until I was talking to someone about my new favourite cafe. It is a place I'd been recommended by several people, and I'd been meaning to try it out for ages. About three months ago, I did so. The Settle Down Cafe is delightful. The barista was friendly and immediately made me feel welcome, which is a lovely change from many chain-style coffee shops. The coffee (a mocha, if I remember correctly) was delicious, as was the cake I had. This led me to another of my 'I really must try this out' places, the Sugar Down Bakery. As the names' similarity would suggest, these two are related. The Sugar Down supplies all the cakes and so on for the Settle Down. I can highly recommend both places, and I pop in to the Sugar Down as often as my waistline and conscience will let me ;)

On its penultimate day, I visited the Mariner 9 exhibition at the Spanish Dome in Whitely Bay. More details can be found here. This was a very interesting installation, a gorgeously rendered vision of the debris of some of our visits to the Red Planet, including some potential future craft, once they have been abandoned. Some are trying to 'phone home', others still try to carry out their duties, while still others are rusted junk. The atmosphere was enthralling, with weird eerie wind noises as dust storms scoured the surface, interspersed with the beeps and whirrings of the equipment. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Wednesday, 8 August 2012

I did a money diet in July, but it wasn't overly
successful, mainly due to a Gem & Mineral show held the first
Saturday of my diet-month, which I spent a bit at, and an event later in
the month which I needed some accessories for! I did spend less than
normal, but not less-enough. I think this is something I need to do
again as a separate thing when I can concentrate on it properly.

Last Thursday, I tried indoor climbing at the Byker Climbing Wall. It was definitely an experience, and one I'm glad I've had; however, I don't think I would want to do it again!

To start with, the climbs (according to Jo, who's been trying to persuade me to try climbing for quite a while; she finally succeeded - thank you Jo!) were actually quite difficult, even the easy ones. First time, I tried one, and got about three hand-holds up before I climbed back down, terrified! NOPE! as they say on the internets.

However, Jo persuaded me to try another different climb, and I got further this time; almost to the top. However, I still wasn't up to jumping down, even onto the crash mats... so it was climb-down time again.

The best I managed was on this climb - all the way to the top! (Although I was hanging on for dear life while Jo got the camera!)

I got up here, now how do I get down?!

Ohai!

After the first half-climb, my forearms seemed to have developed new muscles, just so they could go into spasm. By the end of half-an-hour, my shoulders, thighs and calves were complaining as well. So, all in all, I'm glad I did it, but I doubt I'll ever go climbing again; it's just not really for me!

The other thing I've done is learn to use a spinning wheel. It's something I've always wanted to do, since I was a little girl, and today I got the chance (thanks K!) Somehow it seems both rustic and romantic, I'm not sure quite why!

Hardly Sleeping Beauty ;)
However, I did get to use the seat from the old Tyneside Cinema which K has! Very comfy!

The Niddy-Noddy I used to wind the wool,
and the first (tiny!) skein of spun wool I've made!

I intend to do some more spinning, with the intention of making enough for Jo to show me how to make Tablet-weaving (she's been saying I should give it a try for ages, so I will - another new thing!), and make a piece of Tablet weave, so I'll update the list if I manage to do that.

Thursday, 26 July 2012

I'd not expected to get all three 'new bands' in one fell swoop, but I have. Thanks to the Humble Music Bundle, I've now listened to FOUR new bands:

They Might be Giants (rather odd! but OK in their way! - we did have an album by them, but I don't recall listening to it);OK Go, (again quite strange!);
Rather dramatic music from video games from Hitoshi Sakimoto;
and probably the most interesting, Christopher Tin's album Calling All Dawns.

(We already have some MC Frontalot, and Jonathan Coulton; it was thanks to these that we gave the others a chance!)

I still intend to keep looking for fresh music, but I consider my duty by my Challenge done!

36 Horse-ride along a beach, in the surf :)
37 Take a course in Bookbinding & bind a book. (If course is running in Sept.)
38 Take a Millinery course & make a hat
39 Have a Capoeira lesson
40 Take a Fan Dancing class

41 Box Brownie photography (Jo)
42 Make Ginger Beer
43 Make a Dragon sculpture, since it is Chinese Year of the Dragon!

I've finished Beowulf (in a prose version; I might read a poetry version as well, but I'm in the middle of reading Metro 2033 now, which is very gripping, so it won't be for a while yet!)

I also finally made it to the Lit & Phil in Town yesterday. It's been a moveable feast as it were, because it doesn't have to be done on any particular day; but yesterday, I thought 'sod it' and went in anyway, even though I had other things to be done in the day; they could wait!

The Lit & Phil

I couldn't resist getting a photo of this lovely spiral staircase.

I spent a while in there reading a copy of Scientific American that was lying on a table. I would have spent longer (I found a couple of books on Victoriana) but I really did have to do 'real life' things like shopping for milk and so on!

So, as a couple of people have asked me lately how far through my Challenge I am, I think I'm probably due another updated list. Next post!